Court Blocks Plan to Parole Singleton in San Francisco

A Superior Court judge, acting at the request of San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, issued a temporary restraining order late Tuesday barring the state from temporarily housing paroled rapist Lawrence Singleton in this city.

It was the second time in five days that a judge has blocked the state Corrections Department’s plans for locating Singleton.

Feinstein ordered City Atty. Louise Renne to seek the court order after learning at noon that Singleton, 59, would be placed here for at least two weeks while the Corrections Department sought a permanent home for him.

Saying Singleton’s placement “is not my problem, frankly,” Feinstein told reporters that San Francisco would not become a “dumping ground” for parolees and suggested that Singleton be sent to another nation.

“We’re not saying where it (Singleton’s location) should be. We’re just saying it shouldn’t be San Francisco,” Renne said, noting that Singleton has no family or job prospects here and that police might be unable to protect him from fearful or vengeful San Franciscans.

The order by Judge Vincent M. Campilongo followed a closed hearing and left Department of Corrections officials at a loss for a place to house Singleton. “We’re in kind of bind over where we’re going to put him,” Deputy Atty. Gen. Morris Lenk conceded Tuesday.

San Francisco’s legal move was the latest example of snowballing public outrage driven by the heinous nature of Singleton’s crime and his release from prison after serving less than eight years.

In 1978, Singleton picked up Mary Vincent, then 15 and a runaway from Las Vegas, who was hitchhiking in Berkeley. In a drunken rage, he raped the girl and hacked off her forearms with an ax, leaving her for dead in a culvert along a rural road outside of Modesto. Vincent survived and testified against him in a 1979 trial.

Singleton was sentenced to 14 years and four months in prison for attempted murder and rape. His term was cut to less than eight years for good behavior and for work he did while in prison.

On Saturday, Singleton was released from the California Men’s Colony at San Luis Obispo. Pending a permanent parole placement, he is being housed in temporary quarters, and has been constantly supervised by two parole agents.

Corrections spokesman Robert Gore said Singleton went shopping on Tuesday and has been cooperative with his guards. He will remain under round-the-clock supervision until the Department of Corrections can find him a permanent home, something Gore hopes will happen in the “near future.”

“There is something unseemly about the State of California having to drive a parolee from place to place trying to find a place for him,” Lenk said. “We do not have an internal exile system, such as a Gorky or a Devil’s Island.”

State Plans to Appeal

Lenk said he would appeal Campilongo’s ruling in concert with the state’s appeal of a similar order last Friday barring Singleton’s release to nearby Contra Costa County.

The dispute over Singleton’s parole site recalls another notorious San Francisco Bay Area case. In 1984 former San Francisco supervisor Dan White was paroled to Los Angeles County after serving time for slaying Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Feinstein and other San Francisco officials earlier had advised the state not to place White in San Francisco. White committed suicide in 1985.

Initially, parole authorities wanted to place Singleton in Antioch, in Contra Costa County, his last residence before he was imprisoned. But local officials and residents signed petitions and wrote letters decrying the plan and sued to block it, forcing authorities to look out-of-state.

However, authorities in Florida--where Singleton has family, and had offers of a job, housing and a car--rejected Singleton because of a concern that the case would raise public ire there, making his success on parole questionable.

County Sued

That forced California authorities to look again to Contra Costa County, only to have the county sue. A Superior Court judge late Friday temporarily blocked the state from placing him in Contra Costa County.

Calling the moves by San Francisco and Contra Costa counties “parochial,” Lenk raised the possibility that if the Department of Corrections cannot find a place for him, Singleton may petition the state to release him immediately from his parole.

If such a request were granted, parole authorities would have no control over Singleton. As it now stands, Singleton’s parole conditions bar him from drinking or taking drugs and from going outdoors between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. He must undergo weekly counseling.

“We have no choice. We have to put him somewhere in this state,” Lenk said.